Bruce Springsteen on Trump: ‘He’s Deeply Damaged’

The rocker-turned-Broadway-star with a long history of supporting Democratic candidates for president spoke out about Trump in a new interview with Esquire.

By NTK Staff | 11.27.2018 @11:00am

Bruce Springsteen, the outspoken rock star who has recently been in the headlines due to his sell-out “Springsteen on Broadway” run in New York, is speaking out about President Trump in a new interview with Esquire.

Springsteen talked with Esquire about how important family bonds are to him and took a swipe at Trump over what Springsteen sees as Trump’s ‘forsaking’ of family bonds.

“The bonds of your personal family,” he says, “but also the ties you can’t break among your community and your fellow citizens. You can’t forsake those things. It’ll rot your core at the end of the day. If you want to see someone who’s—look at Trump. He has forsaken a lot of these things, and it’s affected him. He’s deeply damaged at his core.”

Springsteen also suggested that the founding fathers built our government for a person like Trump – but that was not a kind suggestion on Springsteen’s part.

“I think that a lot of what’s going on has been a large group of people frightened by the changing face of the nation. There seems to be an awful lot of fear. The founding fathers were pretty good at confronting their fears and the fears of the country. And it’s the old cliché where geniuses built the system so an idiot could run it. We are completely testing that theory at this very moment.”

The rocker also attempted to understand the frustration that led to Trump’s election in 2016.

“Well, I guess forty years-plus would make it worse. And I do feel that people feel under siege, and sometimes for reasons that I don’t agree with and that are unfortunate. Like I say, whether it’s the changing face of the nation or . . . I think those people legitimately feel under siege. Their way of life is somehow threatened—is existentially threatened. And maybe that explains Trump and maybe it doesn’t, but . . . that’s always been a part of the American story. It continues to be a part of it today.”

Springsteen is no stranger to politics. He campaigned for John Kerry in 2004, Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and a bit mutedly for Hillary Clinton in 2016. However, Springsteen has been quieter on politics than usual in the era of Trump. He released a fiery anti-Bush album, “Magic,” in 2007, and an anti-Wall Street album, “Wrecking Ball,” in 2012. Springsteen has released no new music that directly addresses Trump, though, two years into Trump’s presidency.